


down parkway lines

by Violet_DeLights



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Torture, Canon-Typical Violence, Corpo V, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Johnny Silverhand Being An Asshole, Kidnapping, Mutual Pining, Requited Unrequited Love, Rocker Johnny, Set in 2023, Soft Johnny Silverhand
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29303061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_DeLights/pseuds/Violet_DeLights
Summary: V saw the resolution harden his frame, flesh arm straining as it prepared to take the recoil of firing, and knew she wouldn’t have time to reason her way out of this.She didn’t know what Johnny, famously anti-corporation, would be doing in the heart of Arasaka in the dead of night but none of it seemed like good news for her.(Or, the AU in which Johnny runs out of time to plant the bomb and ends up kidnapping Corpo V instead)
Relationships: Brief Johnny Silverhand/Alt Cunningham, Brief Johnny Silverhand/Rogue Amendiares, Johnny Silverhand/Female V, Johnny Silverhand/V
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	down parkway lines

_Hey, I hear the voice of a preacher from the back room_

_Calling my name and I follow just to find you_

_I trace the faith to a broken down television_

_And put on the weather_

V sighed as she pushed the different data shards across her desk, rifling through them in order to find the acquisition chip she needed. 

Glancing out of the glass walls that surrounded her office, she was unsurprised to find others dashing around, a franticness to their movements that spoke of desperation. More work had been flooding down from above, and rumor had it that something had spooked the higher ups—hence the flood of purchases for new properties in Night City and the occasional bribe here or there to smooth the way, wrapped up pretty in legalese terms.

V’s own station was a few floors down from above and hadn’t been missed by the onslaught either, as she searched her overridden desk for the _one_ fucking data shard she needed at the moment. Spotting it, on the ground partially underneath the desk cabinet where it must have been pushed off with the flood of new requests to deal with, she grabbed it and stood, heels clacking against tile as she strode from her office out into the chaos.

“Gerald!” V barked authoritatively, and a man stumbled away from the mass of people assembled, face awash with fatigue.

“Yes, ma’am,” he stuttered nervously and V had to hold back a snort.

“Get this chip up to Jenkins; he’s been expecting it. Tell him the deal with go through with little push back, although the community he’s leveling for it won’t be very happy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Gerald squeaked and then, fumbling it from her, took off for the elevators.

Under other circumstances, V might have felt as nervous as the rest of her co-workers but she hadn’t gotten to the top in terms of rank at this company without knowing her own worth and developing nerves that never failed her.

The side jobs she occasionally picked up with Jackie helped as well, honing her reflexes and teaching her how to hack, when to be stealthy, and how to fire a gun. All elements that came in handy in the cutthroat environment at Arasaka, and ones which elevated her from her brethren, when the upper crust usually handed her jobs they didn’t want to dirty their own hands for. V had no qualms about her place on the corporate ladder, as long as the eddies kept flowing.

She had just made her way back into her office, with its modest, plush red couch, coffee table holding a full scotch decanter and her large desk, surrounded by three screens with various messages and files flashing up, when she cursed, spotting a new pile of shards that must have just arrived. V grabbed for the first, placed near the edge of the desk and away from her ever growing pile, and slotted it into her head immediately, blinking blue fuzz away as the message generated before her eyes.

_This message contains the data pertinent to purchase land, entitled ARK-3202. Deed and documents are enclosed, including the cost of reimbursement for denizens previously living there. We have allotted over 250,000 eddies to be spread among them for relocation purposes, which is well under budget and a fraction of what was originally estimated to proceed with for their comfort…._

_Well, fuck,_ she mentally cursed, ejecting the chip and slamming it back into its case, turning on her heel once more and heading to the elevator ahead. V should have been given this data hours ago, but, in lieu of its arrival, had decided to send off the first shard granting access to purchase. Now that she had the rest, it needed to be delivered as soon as possible, and she didn’t quite trust her bumbling staff to accomplish it without further pissing off Jenkins or, god forbid, the board of Arasaka.

Slipping into the elevator, she flicked her fingers over the touch screen interface for the necessary floor, leaning into the back wall and tilting her head up, trying to will her growing migraine away. V had hoped that, now that her dedication had been made clear, along with her skillset, that her hours might be reduced. As it was, it was nothing she couldn’t, technically, handle but as the past few weeks went on a tension was mounting in the building, trailing down each hall and infecting its inhabitants. The new deluge of work was making everyone stay late, including her. As it was, she knew it had grown dark by now, even if she didn’t know what time it was.

V's feet ached in her stilettos, her snug black skirt feeling uncomfortably tight the more time passed, and her white blouse and black suit jacket, while silhouetting her curves nicely, were starting to feel a little grimy. She’d had to sleep in this outfit the past two nights, crashing on the couch in her office so she could resume her duties as soon as she woke.

The elevator chimed, doors sliding open and she shuffled out, only half aware of her surroundings anymore. As it was, when she finally took in the barren carpeted floor, with the door to the CEO on her right and the stairwell to the roof before her, V attempted to shake off her drowsiness, smoothing back her hair with one hand as she started forward.

_With my luck, the bastard will have gone home for the night_ , she thought bitterly.

Though everyone within Arasaka was pulling double shifts, the higher ups were rarely seen within its walls anymore.

_The perks of being rich and on top,_ she figured.

V had only made it halfway across, when the sound of muffled gunfire reached her ears and she paused, biting her lip uncertainly and looking towards the stairwell door. Surely that had just been her over worked mind playing tricks…?

A resounding _boom_ shook the building and she found herself falling to her knees from the vibrations around her, her teeth rattling.

On alert now, she slid one leg behind herself, drawing her other foot forward to plant on the carpet. She kept low to the ground, so as to make herself a smaller target, and held her breath, trying to peer through her Kiroshi Optics at the door to find out what was happening.

The information highlighted itself in her periphery, the door glowing green and only telling her its functionality and build.

V was just about to start scuttling towards the CEO’s doors, where there was surely a more comprehensive security system to protect her than staying out in the open, when another, more powerful, blast rent the air and she was nearly thrown to the ground.

She flung out her arms to keep her balance in her lowered position and waited a few moments to regain her equilibrium, breathing steadily through the rush of fear and adrenaline in her veins.

The gunfire sounded closer and, then, the stairwell door was kicked open and a woman came through. She was dressed in dark jeans and a cut off tank, tied off to reveal her mid riff. Her jacket was thick and black, with yellow and pink neon colors striped down the middle. Her Mohawk was flipped to one side, deep enough to be mistaken for black at first glance, until the fluorescent light caught it and revealed it to be a deep turquoise.

V carefully didn’t startle, keeping her stance, even as the woman jerked to a stop, eyes wide, clearly not expecting someone to be there.

A man pushed past her and V registered the glint of metal raised into the air and let her street honed instincts guide her, throwing herself to the side just as a spray of bullets tore through the carpet where she had been.

She kept her momentum going, rolling up to her feet and twisting once more, allowing her body to come flush against the wall beside her, bullets tracking her progress across the floor in a grotesque dance.

She counted off rounds as she went and stopped, panting, a bullet having chipped the wall next to her ear, leaving a ringing sound behind.

The man cursed and started to reload in a fluid movement that drew her gaze along the curve of the weapon and, she didn’t know what possessed her to draw his attention just then, but she blurted out, “Malorian Arms 3516; ten shots a round and can pull off two shots per second. Custom made."

The man froze, gun reloaded and pointed at her, and it gave her a split second to take him in. He was wearing tight maroon leather pants, his belt looked like rounds of ammunition, and he was sporting a black tac army vest, sliver dog tags resting against his chest. With that, and his shaggy dark hair sweeping his shoulders, the goatee and beard combination, and the sunglasses reflecting her own diminished body back at her, V knew who this man was.

“Johnny Silverhand,” she breathed and, for an instant, was taken back to when she was an angry teenager, bounced from one foster home to the next, screaming out the lyrics to _‘Chippin’ In’_ , her _Samurai_ poster always curled at the top of her knapsack just in case she needed to run off in the middle of the night. Of looking, with admiration, over the specs of the gun threatening her existence.

The woman beside him chuckled, but it sounded strained. “Looks like we’ve found a fan of yours.”

“Shut the fuck up, Rogue,” Johnny gritted out, jaw clenched. “We’re wastin’ time.”

V saw the resolution harden his frame, flesh arm straining as it prepared to take the recoil of firing, and knew she wouldn’t have time to reason her way out of this. She didn’t know what Johnny, famously anti-corporation, would be doing in the heart of Arasaka in the dead of night but none of it seemed like good news for her.

With no weapons of her own, and the room bare of anything she could use as a distraction or hack, V wrenched her arm back, aim solidified precisely where she needed, and hurled the data case at him.

It flew past Johnny’s outstretched arm to smash into his face, the knock of hardened plastic crunching into the bone of his nose making her wince, even as V propelled herself towards the stairwell behind them, hoping that, by taking them off guard, she could find a hiding spot towards the roof to hunker in.

Just as her hand brushed against the doorway and she readied herself to haul ass up the steps, a metal arm lashed out and curled around her wrist roughly, yanking her back into a line of heat across her back. V struggled only until the warm metal of a barrel pressed into her temple and then she willingly went limp, eyes darting around as she considered her next move. V was spun around until she was facing Rogue, Johnny’s body a furious force she was entrapped by, imperceptible tremors wracking him, and she swore she could hear his teeth grinding.

“Move again and you die,” he snarled. V allowed the tension to flood from her limbs to give off the impression of defeat, mind whirling.

The past few moments had seemed an eternity to her, as she fought to stay alive, but in the grand scheme of things had probably only lasted a minute, from her dodging bullets to throwing her data case to grant her a means of escape.

Rogue’s eyes were wider than before, her eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline as her gaze went from the case that was laying on the ground to over V’s shoulder. Her lip trembled as she took in Johnny and V spitefully wondered if the woman was going to cry because he was hurt. She could feel the hot splatter dripping onto the back of her neck, with how close they were pressed together, that signaled her little move had probably broken the man’s nose.

They hadn’t been all that far apart when she’d thrown it and she hadn’t pulled any punches, knowing it was life or death. V had flung that thing as hard as she could. She tried to take satisfaction in the fact that, even though she was going to die in a few seconds, at least she’d held her own as best she could before then. She’d fought with every last breath and she’d go down still fighting.

But Rogue didn’t cry, even though V could see her eyes well up. Instead, she _cackled._

Rogue bent nearly in half as she laughed, her raucous giggles filling the room and causing both V and, she imagined, Johnny, to stare at her in bewilderment.

"Sorry, sorry,” Rogue gasped. “But I can’t believe she got the better of you like that! Ruined those good looks of yours, Johnny. Hell, I should pay her for that, not kill--”

“Rogue,” he grumbled, cutting her off, voice sounding thick as he spat blood away, “We don’t have fuckin’ time for this shit. Get the goddamn bomb!”

Rogue huffed, straightening and wiping tears from her eyes, slinging a black duffel bag from off her shoulder and starting to the elevator.

Before she could make it more than a couple steps, and just as Johnny was pushing a reluctant V away slightly, gun digging into her skin with intent, a different kind of explosion was heard, not far off, the ground shaking beneath them.

Rogue halted, eyebrows furrowing and V felt Johnny take a breath, perhaps to berate her again, when an ominously deep, grating voice rang out, bellowing, “SILVERHAND!”

V could tell it came from somewhere beyond the CEO’s doors but, beyond that, she didn’t know who the _fuck_ that could be.

Rogue, however, whirled to face Johnny, hand spasming over the handle of the duffel bag, almost causing it to fall from her grasp. Her face was white.

“Johnny, that’s Smasher!”

Johnny cursed again and the gun lowered from her head, allowing her to take a breath unrestricted by latent panic at her close demise.

“He’s close! We can’t do this now! We have to pull out while we still can! C’mon!” Rogue pleaded, already running back to Johnny’s side.

“No!” he growled. “This wasn’t the plan! Plant the bomb--I can take Smasher!”

A rumbling sound was heard, almost akin to an engine firing up, and V looked towards the doors with astonishment. Either there was a fucking tank back there or someone with some huge cybernetic enhancements, in which case she didn’t think whoever it was would be too picky about gunning them all down, herself included.

“No,” Rogue said firmly, expression stricken as she turned away from the doors, her hand coming out to pull at Johnny’s, wrapping around it and ignoring the gun. “We are leaving _now_. We aren’t becoming martyrs for this cause, none of us. Including _you_. Even if I have to drag your ass out of here myself!”

Johnny pulled away from her pleading, taking V with him as he backed up, but the noise was growing closer, the sound of wood and metal giving way as this Smasher person tore through furniture, or even walls, to get closer.

There was a pregnant pause, where V had a feeling that everyone was on the cusp of something momentous, a tumble into destiny one way or another.

“Fine!” he finally shouted, hoarse voice breaking, and V would have felt bad for him if the gun hadn’t swung up to dig into the skin above her ear again.

“No!” Rogue said quickly, “It took everything we had to get here this time. If we hit them again, we’ll need to know how. They’ll have changed their defenses. We can take her with us and find out what she knows!”

Johnny was silent and V was hoping that he’d just decide she was too much of an effort, maybe fling her aside so he could make his great escape, but then the butt of his gun slammed into her temple and her body dropped, knees thudding to the carpet as his metal hand kept a firm grip on her wrist, her body suspended by it or else she would have toppled over completely.

Her vision was swimming and she felt a searing pain throb in her head, something warm sliding down the side of her face to drip off her chin.

V fought not to throw up as Johnny suddenly crouched, metal arm slipping across her shoulders as his flesh arm slid underneath her knees, hoisting her up to his chest. Her head lolled, dark spots dancing before her eyes. Her legs and arms felt useless, dangling in the air as he and Rogue took off up the stairwell, each rough step forward causing V to swallow, hoping to fight off her dizzying nausea.

The clang of a door being shoved open was heard and then she felt the cool night air caress her skin.

She was jostled against Johnny’s body as he ran, her eyes suddenly too heavy to keep open and fluttering shut.

The roar of helicopter blades broke through her fog, along with another, much closer explosion, and a voice howled, _“Found you!”_

And then there were hands pulling at her and a lurch as the floor beneath her moved, the sound of the helicopter deafening. There was the heat of a fire that sailed near her body and she felt the air displaced by a hail of bullets, some pinging off metal around her.

The copter swayed and V stayed prone, splayed out on the grate of its flooring, cheek pressed against cold metal with Johnny, Rogue, and another woman’s voice filtering in and out of her awareness.

Then, she felt nothing but the wind rushing past, ruffling her hair and skimming across her exposed skin, leaving her shivering in its wake.

She managed to prize her eyes open and found them fixed out the open doorway, blurry figures shuffling around her.

The night sky was an inky velvet backdrop and the stars glimmered beautifully, dazzling her with their intensity, so far above the normal pollution and the neon colored haze of advertisements that surrounded Night City.

She found her eyes drawn up, tracing through the few constellations she knew to fixate on the bright northern star.

_So many parts of the world changed through time, but not stars_ , she mused dazedly.

It sparkled before V and she felt like she could almost reach out, touch its fiery essence and be whisked away to a better place, struggling to raise her arm even as the world grew dark as she tumbled into unconsciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> Song is 'I Wanna Get Better’ by The Bleachers


End file.
